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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23678725">tell me your secrets, ask me your questions (let's go back to the start)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaxson_v/pseuds/jaxson_v'>jaxson_v</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angsty Kara Danvers, F/F, Lena Luthor Finds Out Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Scientist Kara Danvers, Update update: I was planning on expanding this but have changed my mind, basically based on the idea that kara absolutely does not want to be a reporter, because shes HER OWN PERSON, not a female clark kent, she has powers but she doesn't use them much, sorry fam she's a single chapter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:26:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,256</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23678725</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaxson_v/pseuds/jaxson_v</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A ficlet based on Kara completely rejecting being a reporter and a superhero and deciding to just be sciencey. Then, she meets Lena Luthor.</p><p>title is from The Scientist, by Coldplay.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>416</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>tell me your secrets, ask me your questions (let's go back to the start)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p> Kara Danvers is not Superman. She definitely isn't Clark Kent either. She isn't some reporter, fighting for truth and justice. She certainly isn't Earths protector.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> Once, Clark invited her to a press conference that he was reporting on, and after watching him wrestle his way to the front of the bustling crowd and ask uncomfortable question after question, she knew it wasn't for her.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> After Jeremiah Danvers died, Kara saw the look in Eliza's eyes. Heard the hate in Alex's voice for months. <em>Home wrecker</em>, Alex had called her. She was careless with these powers that this second chance at life granted her, and she'd ruined her new family's life. Cost them a family member. (Kara thinks she seems to do that a lot.) So she stopped using her powers. Tried to blend in, be human.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> When Lex Luthor turned the sun red, it was all over the news. Eliza had shut off the television as soon as she could, with a soft protest from Alex. <em>Your sister can hear it,</em> she had scolded. No matter how hard she had tried not to, tried to pretend she couldn’t, she could. It hurt to watch Eliza scold Alex over and over again, trying to be protective of Kara. She didn't deserve it. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> After all, she was a home wrecker.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> Clark suggested to her one day that she learn how to use her powers and become one of Earth's champions alongside him. She’d nearly laughed in his face. How was she supposed to protect an entire planet when she couldn't even protect a baby? Her cousin didn't need her protection, and neither did Earth. Besides, every time she thought about dedicating her time to using her powers, she felt like she was disrespecting Krypton, another planet she couldn’t help. Earth <em>did</em> need help, but not from her powers. She could save Earth, with her knowledge of advanced Kryptonian science. It was the only thing she trusted herself enough to do. She could prevent Earth's downfall the way that she couldn't Krypton's. So, she became a scientist. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> That's how she met Lena Luthor.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> Kara glanced at a sports bar tv one night, only to see the sister of the man who’d nearly killed her cousin. She'd heard Clark's rants about the Luthors many times over, but when television-Lena Luthor desperately said the words <em>I am not my brother </em>and spoke of carving her own path regardless of her name<em>,</em> it resonated with her. She was distracted by the news for the rest of the night. L-Corp. Defined by her family. A new initiative to do good for the planet. Kara was hooked. When Alex later asked her why the hell she wanted to work for <em>Lena Luthor of all people,</em> she had mumbled something about doing it to see the look on Clark's face. (It was pretty worth it.)</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> She had taken a low level job in the labs at the L-Corp National City branch and was contentedly settling in when Lena announced to the public that she would be moving headquarters to National City.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> A problem that soon arose, was that Lena often came down to the labs to either get to know workers, or get hands on with the technology she was producing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> She had met Lena a couple times that way, exchanging quick get-to-know-you conversations and showing Lena what projects she was working on at the moment.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> She tried not to hyperfocus in the middle of conversation when Lena remembered her name, because Lena’s thing was connecting with her employees, and she remembered a lot of people's names down there, right?</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> Anyway, Kara had now been keeping a human identity for nearly as long as she had lived her alien one. She'd gotten pretty used to tuning out the sounds of a jogger's music from halfway across the city, someone spilling a coffee three floors up, and the jingle of the bell hanging from the door in the cafe across the street. So she hadn’t kicked herself <em>too</em> hard when she completely missed Lena making her way over to Kara's corner station, where Kara was doodling plans for a very not Earth-like machine, complete with notes written in Kryptonian. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> "What are we working on over here--<em>oh</em>." </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Looking back on it, Kara had a few theories on how Lena recognized the language, or how she knew there was another Kryptonian, all of them starting with Lex and ending with Luthor. But she was more focused on the way Lena looked up from the paper and looked Kara straight in the eyes. Past the glasses, past the messy ponytail. It had honestly felt like Lena's piercing green eyes were staring right into her soul, reading all of her secrets and Kara couldn't do anything about it. She could instantly tell Lena knew.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> "Anyone ever told you that you look like him a little, up here in the eyes?" She had smirked, gesturing to her own face. Which, only brought Kara's attention to her perfectly arched eyebrows, and back to her amused, kind, knowing gaze, effectively making Kara stutter even more when she choked out a <em>w-what?</em></p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> Lena had asked her to dinner that night, under the guise of professionally getting to know her employee better. Kara didn't tell Alex about it, because she knew she would freak. She had just showed up at the hipster kombucha place and made a joke about <em>how very millennial of you Miss Luthor.</em> Lena of course, found it more amusing that a Luthor had a Super working under her, to which Kara gave her nearly her entire life story. She was putty in her hands, after all.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> She had no reason to trust the woman, other than the genuine and curious look in her eyes as she quietly described her home planet in a booth, at 9:00 at night, in a near empty restaurant on Main Street.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> It felt good to talk about Krypton, to tell someone about her family and the friends she left behind. It felt a little worse to choke on her words when she got to watching everything she ever knew blow up right before her eyes. Lena looked a little lost too, but after a moment's hesitation, slowly placed her hand atop Kara's on the table. That didn't exactly help Kara pull herself together.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> She felt a lot closer to the woman after sharing her story, and she had quietly removed her glasses and placed them on the table. She had been more than a little shocked when Lena got the tiniest bit flustered as she looked at Kara, no boundaries.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> “Kara, you look really pretty without your glasses.” She then, of course, had elegantly steered the conversation away, ignoring the light dusting of pink on her cheeks.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> They left the restaurant and ended up walking around the city while Lena gave her life story in exchange, talking about Lena watching her brother drive himself insane with obsession, and reluctantly taking over the family business. When Lena brushed over the blatant verbal and psychological abuse she'd received while living with the Luthors as a child, Kara thought she understood a little bit of why her cousin fought so hard for justice.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p> Lena ended the night making Kara promise to move to a higher position and start a few projects that could have massive effects on some of Earth's problems. Kara ended the night laying in bed, trying to think of the best way to tell Alex and Clark that Lena Luthor knew her secret identity.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this is also up on my tumblr, @jaxson-v where I post other crackhead content</p></blockquote></div></div>
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